1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an iris authentication apparatus that performs authentication based on data that is generated from an iris.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, fingerprint authentication apparatuses using data that is based on the pattern of a fingerprint that is part of a human body are in practical use.
Those fingerprint apparatuses operate in the following manner. A person who wants to be authenticated brings his fingerprint portion, the fingerprint of which was registered in advance in the authentication apparatus, into contact with a fingerprint reading portion of the authentication apparatus. The authentication apparatus reads and checks the fingerprint and gives the person authentication that the fingerprint thus read is his fingerprint that is registered in advance in the authentication apparatus.
However, those authentication apparatuses using a fingerprint have a problem that a third parson can pretend to be a person whose fingerprint is registered in advance in the authentication apparatus by making a copy of the fingerprint of the registered person with a certain means and having the copied fingerprint read by a fingerprint reading portion of the authentication apparatus.
To solve this problem, an authentication apparatus using a wrinkle pattern on the surface of an iris of a human was proposed as an authentication apparatus capable of performing authentication in a non-contact state (Electronics, 1998 February issue, Ohmsha, Ltd.). However, even this authentication apparatus using an iris has a problem that a third person can be authenticated by pretending to be a person who is registered in the authentication apparatus by making a copy of a wrinkle pattern on the surface of an iris by illegally photographing the eye of the registered person and using glasses to which the copy is stuck.
The authentication apparatus using data that is generated based on an iris that is part of a human body has an absolute advantage for identification of an individual that every parson has irises that are different from those of all of the other persons and do not vary in all of his life. Further, such an authentication apparatus is superior by nature in recognition ability as a means for recognizing an individual in a non-contact state. However, as described above, it has the problem that a third person can pretend as a registered person by making a copy of an iris of the registered person with a certain means and using it.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances in the art, and an object of the invention is therefore to increase the authentication accuracy of an authentication apparatus using an iris by making it possible to check whether data of an iris that is registered for authentication in the iris authentication apparatus or data of an iris to be authenticated is one obtained from a living body and thereby prevent a third person to pretend as a registered person (living body) by using iris data that is not obtained from a living body.
The invention provides an iris authentication apparatus which performs authentication based on data generated from an iris, comprising iris data detecting means for detecting a state of an iris in the form of data; living body detecting means for detecting whether the iris state is in a living body state; and judging means for judging that the data detected by the iris data detecting means is effective when the living body detecting means has detected that the iris state is in a living body state. The iris authentication apparatus having this configuration can reliably prevent a third person from being authenticated instead of a registered person by forging an iris pattern.
The invention also provides an iris authentication apparatus which performs authentication based on data generated from an iris, comprising iris data detecting means for detecting a state of an iris in the form of data; storing means for storing the data representing the iris state detected by the iris data detecting means; living body detecting means for detecting whether the iris state is in a living body state based on the data stored in the storing means and representing the iris state; and judging means for judging that the data detected by the iris data detecting means is effective when the living body detecting means has detected that the iris state is in a living body state. The iris authentication apparatus having this configuration can reliably prevent a third person from being authenticated instead of a registered person by forging an iris pattern.